Review Rhetorical Devices and Logical Fallacies

Rhetorical Devices

A technique or word choice used by a speaker or writer
to achieve a particular effect, especially to persuade,
inform, or evoke emotion in an audience.

Appeals

Strategies used to
persuade an audience: Ethos
(credibility/ethics), Pathos (emotion),
Logos (logic/reason).

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or
phrase at the beginning of successive
clauses or sentences.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word or
phrase at the end of successive
clauses or sentences.

Asyndeton

Deliberately omitting
conjunctions (and, or, but) between
words, phrases, or clauses.

Polysyndeton

Overusing conjunctions in
close succession to slow down the
rhythm or emphasize abundance.

Chiasmus

A clause or phrase whose
structure is inverted in the second
half (an $A-B-B-A$ pattern).

Paraellism

The repetition of similar
grammatical structures in successive
words, phrases, or clauses.

Antithesis

occurs when two direct
opposite ideas are deliberately placed
together using parallel grammatical
structure.

Rigid Structure: Rigid and balanced.
The opposing ideas must share a
parallel grammatical frame (e.g., Noun
+ Verb, Noun + Verb).

Juxtaposition

placing two or more concepts,
images, characters, ideas, or places side-
by-side—or in close proximity—so the
audience can compare and contrast them.

Flexible Structure: It can occur across two
adjacent sentences, across paragraphs, or
through contrasting scenes/characters in a
narrative.

Allusion

A brief and indirect
reference to a person, place, thing, or
idea of historical, cultural, literary, or
political significance.

Metonymy

Substituting the name of an
attribute or feature for the thing itself

Synecdoche

Using a part of something
to represent the whole. Substitutes a
literal physical part for the whole, or
the whole for a part

Logical Fallacies

An error in reasoning that makes an argument logically
flawed, invalid, or deceptive, even though it may be
psychologically persuasive.

Sweeping Generalization

a broad statement or
general rule is incorrectly
applied to a specific
individual case or situation
to which, due to its specific
features, the rule does not
apply. It assumes that what
is true in general must be
true in every particular
instance without exception

AD HOMINEM

Attacking the character,
motive, or other attributes
of the person making the
argument instead of
addressing the argument
itself.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc (False Cause)

Assuming that because
Event B occurred after
Event A, Event A must have
caused Event B.

STRAWMAN

Misrepresenting or
oversimplifying an
opponent's argument to
make it easier to attack.

Bandwagon

Arguing that a claim must
be true or good because a
large number of people
believe it or are doing it.

Red Herring

Introducing an irrelevant
topic into an argument to
distract the audience from
the real issue at hand.

Circular Reasoning

An argument where the
premise and the conclusion
are essentially the same
statement, making it
appear to support itself
without actual evidence.
(Begging the Question)